Long Nights and Late Mornings
by Ayrki
Summary: "Before Amy, her world had been long nights and late mornings."


**Title:** Long Nights and Late Mornings

**Author:** Ayrki (Tristian Makhai)

**Rating:** PG?

**Summary:** "Before Amy, her world had been long nights and late mornings."

**Disclaimer:** [snorts] Completely and utterly not mine. In fact, the initial thing that inspired this isn't even mine, either. ^_^ DEBS belongs to people half a world away from me.

**Notes:** I suppose you could call this a sort of character study of Lucy. The title is a phrase I read in a story maybe yesterday or the day before, though I can't name it at the moment. I found I liked the phrase, wrote it on my desk, and was immediately pounced on by the muse that night. If it sucks or is OOC my excuse is my head hurts like all snot, and...uh...I'm still learning the characters? The first of many DEBS pieces I've undertaken. Thanks for the beta and your own long nights and late mornings given to my insanity, Lex. I'll admit it: I'm insufferably pleased with this piece. :D

First in a loose series, followed by 'Settled'.

**Written:** Circa late 2005/2006

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><p>Before Amy, her world had been long nights and late mornings. Half the time, she found night most suitable for her purposes in ways the day hours never could. It was said it was at night when the wicked monsters came out to play and Lucy Diamond sure as hell was not one to disappoint. Under the cover of dark fall, so much was stripped away until only the hard, dark truth remained.<p>

Everyone could take their puppies, vanilla, and white picket fences and...keep them to themselves. Oh, she could pretend to play the part of straight and narrow -and magnificently at that- but it was only with the cloak of night wrapped firmly and comfortably around her shoulders did she let her darker nature be seen. She knew society's rules -probably better than they themselves did- but she refused to play by them for very long.

Lucy Diamond liked the random chaos of living and the tidy ideals of the rest of the world felt like a cage she could never survive. Order had its place and time, but life wasn't organised and planned out. Things changed, people evolved, and -most basically- everything had the ability to affect your desires. Lucy liked living free with a touch of dark danger slipping its fingers through her hair and the taste of vitality on her tongue. She liked the rush living gave you when it was unpredictable. She adored life and threw everything she had into it for the simple joy of experiencing the pleasures it offered.

She was the ultimate connoisseur. If it could be sampled, she'd tasted it. If it could be experienced, she'd already known its touch. The world was her playground and the people, her toys and as soon as she mastered one, she stepped to the next. If the thought that she was searching ever crossed her mind, she very promptly ignored it and gave no indication of it ever having occurred. She owned life and played with the world at will, but never let her attention rest for long.

That was, until she met her.

Then, the world got a hell of a lot more interesting. Oh, she still played the games of the world and quite readily at that, but she had someone with which to share it finally. Together, they taught by example just what the world should be like, of the rapture known in self-absorbed hedonism. For the first time in her young life, Lucy found someone with as much fire and thirst for life as herself and together they found new heights.

It was epic to say the least. Neither had the ability to give in completely and more often that not, their time together was frighteningly explosive. Gritty some times, harsh at others, but always fevered with passion and always letting Lucy know her heart still beat and her blood pulsed. And, for a time, she was happy. The darkness in her nature was accepted and embraced and she knew no reason to hide it finally. That which gave life to her desires trapped her gentle heart though.

When she finally said 'enough' and voiced the never used safe word, everything shattered. Everything she thought she'd had fled that night; not obviously at first, but a few days later with a betrayal that still ached to this day. True to her nature though, she'd swiftly and lethally retaliated, but it didn't completely banish the hole left in her chest.

So, she'd fled and late nights previously spent sampling the bounty of the world's cultures and the late mornings dedicated towards sleeping off last week's high became something else entirely. They were both still very long and late, but now her nights were spent in the company of herself and finding the path from which she'd strayed. She'd always been nocturnal by nature, but now, she hid from even those familiar hours. The frigid night air and stars became her companions as she searched for truths to patch her wounded soul and eventually, she felt like she could breathe again.

As the days grew longer into the god-forsaken perpetual hours of sunlight of summer for her second passing of the season, a realisation washed over her. Like northern summers, light was inevitable and not all too entirely painful. Both existed and damn it, so did she. The pain still lingered, but the world ceased to be such a scary place and maybe, just maybe, she could rejoin it again.

She'd been back barely a week, tentatively touching her toes into the vast -and always frighteningly strange- dating pool when it happened. It was dark as hell and firmly in the grasp of night, but she could've sworn the sun came out in the dimly lit warehouse. She felt like a complete and utter babbling idiot, but seeing her made Lucy's entire world feel right. She was still Lucy Diamond, badass master criminal and precious jewel thief extraordinaire, but someone finally saw her.

Not the dark cloak of danger and mystery, not the criminal mastermind or the nocturnal wild cat, but Lucy. The girl who still believed in love, happy endings, and the sweet dreams of childhood. She hid it well, but Lucy was as much a sappy romantic as Scud. He just had to push her more and give her advice on it from time-to-time.

And so, despite being more than a little disenchanted with humanity on a whole -and not for the first time either- she suddenly found herself in the freefall of infatuation. Like everything before, it was a heady rush and made her feel alive like nothing else had, only it was of a different sort. It actually felt /right./ When she'd always felt a step outside from the rest of the world, different enough to not really suit anywhere, the feeling of actually belonging was oddly unbalancing. Not all together unpleasant, but never the less, very foreign. She'd become resigned to the fact that she'd never really fit anywhere; that she wasn't ruthless enough to be completely evil, but nor did she possess enough altruism to fall into the world of good.

Neither felt like home, but damned if Amy Bradshaw didn't. It was so absolutely unexpected and for some unfathomable reason -theft and penchant for plots against Australia aside- Amy loved her. Not just one part of her or an ideal of what she thought Lucy Diamond to be, but all of her. In spite of or even because of them, Amy loved Lucy completely; flaws, irrational dislikes, refusal to conform, moral ambiguities, and all the rest, Amy accepted and even embraced her.

Lucy didn't understand it, but she'd be damned if she didn't accept it. The science behind a thermonuclear device didn't have to be understood in order to believe it worked. As twisted as it was to compare an atomic bomb to love, it was the truth. Some times, a thing had to be taken on faith and for Amy, Lucy could do that -and happily even. Love was like that though, sneaking in to quickly rearrange the entire world and make a person do incredibly stupid things like break into federal facilities and kidnap the government's poster child...twice. That wasn't even mentioning crashing the espionage community's version of the Prom.

In less than a month, Lucy had found her entire world upset more than once. She found herself treading in those same familiar patterns, and she couldn't help but marvel at the way life managed to work itself out. She'd been born into a blood feud, lost her parents too early on, had her heart ripped out and danced on, and fallen hopelessly in love with the girl destined to be her arch-nemesis. The world was weird, and fate just as twisted, but what Lucy found true amusement and pleasure in all fell into a simple phrase.

Before Amy, her world had been all about the long nights and late mornings. After Amy, it was more long nights of plotting and the odd island sinking attempt and late mornings of headaches from the night before. And now, as she lay in bed, a pleased smile upon her lips, and revelled in the sight of her still sleeping lover, her life was all about the luxuriously long nights, and the lazy, languid, and frequently late mornings.

It was amazing how so much could change, but how some things always managed to stay the same. But that was all right. Personally, Lucy adored long nights and late mornings...as long as she spent them with Amy.


End file.
